Chapter 18

"Oi, there's a demi-human in the dragon nest! Maybe we should catch and sell her!"

Raphtalia was the first to move. She pulled out her sword and took a stance between the girl and the adventurers.

"You will not touch her!" she yelled, glaring at the man in the front.

"What the hell?"

"Who does this damn demi think she is?"

"Hey!" Lyn yelled as he approached the men in his second outfit he got on day one to get sand from the church, a mask he made during his journey, and the [Nue Shield] on his hand.

"What now?"

"Who the hell are you?" one of the men asked, lifting his sword.

"Wait, that shield, and the demihuman. Isn't that the Shield Demon and his companion? Get him!"

The adventurers ran at Lyn, raising their weapons to try to kill him. He raised his shield above his head and selected his targets.

"[Night Terror]."

The shield let out a quiet hiss so Lyn poured some extra energy into it to increase the effect.

"AAAAAAAA-" the adventurers either covered their eyes, ears, or fell back, staring at something next to Lyn.

"G-g-get BACK! GET AWAY!"

"DON'T COME CLOSER YOU FILTHY MONSTERS!"

"DON'T TOUCH ME! IT WAS YOUR FAULT!"

Lyn took a few steps forward until he was directly in front of the group.

"Leave."

The adventurers piled out of the cave, tripping over each other in the process. Lyn turned his shield into the unmastered [Dragon Tamer Shield II] and walked over to Windia and Raphtalia. But before he could approach, a small ball with wings and a face blocked his path.

"Gau!"

"Oh my god, he's adorable. Can we keep him?" Lyn asked, petting the dragon.

"Gau!?" the dragon ball took a step back and jumped towards the dog demi-human girl.

"He's kidding. Right?" Raphtalia asked, looking at Lyn.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you or your... er... companion? Pet?"

"He's my half brother," the girl replied.

"Brother huh. So that dragon outside is your adoptive father, correct?" Lyn asked.

"Father! You saw him? Is he alright?" she asked with hope in her eyes.

"Well..." Raphtalia began.

"No, not at all. His body is shredded, currently being turned into materials. And his dragon core is missing. Some knights came by with the Spear Hero, so he will probably get some dragon armor soon. Though maybe the Sword Hero has it though. I mean he did slay the dragon so maybe he got the core."

"Lyn-sama! You shouldn't be so blunt about things like this!"

"So he's..." the girl began, but instead of finishing her sentence, she hugged the dragon tighter and started to cry.

"I'm sorry," Raphtalia kneeled down and petted the girl. Lyn looked at them, confused.

"Why... Why are you acting like the guy died or something."

"Huh?"

"Gau?"

"I mean yeah, his body is unusable. But we don't know for sure if his core is shattered or not. I mean as a dragon with the shard of the Dragon Emperor, which I'm sure he is because of the aura his corpse has, the shard he has contains his memories and personality. So the shard can be fed to an existing body or to an egg, in a way reviving the dragon."

The girl looked at him in confusion, soon joined by Raphtalia and the tiny dragon monster.

"Did uh... did your dad not mention any of it before?"

"Does... does that mean he can be brought back?!" the girl yelled, standing up with the dragon in hand.

"Yeah? I'm surprised you don't know this, considering you lived with him for what appears to be a while."

"He never mentioned it."

"I see."

Lyn looked around the cave. There were five dragon eggs around them.

"I never caught your name."

"Wyndia."

"Raphtalia."

"Lyn. So, you wanna come with us? The adventurers from earlier will probably return so it's not safe for you to stay here."

"Gau gau! Gau!?"

"Hm?"

"He's asking if you could help him get stronger. He wants to get so strong so that he won't lose to father. And I also want to get stronger so that things that I hold dear won't be taken from me again! And I want to find my fathers dragon core to bring him back."

"If it's strength you want, welcome to the shield hero's party. I can boost my companions with several different methods giving different boosts. And I'm sure we'll find his fragment along the way. Welcome Wyndia and... uh..."

"He doesn't have a name yet."

"I see. Well if you don't give him one, I'll just call him dragonball for now."

"Gau!?"

Wyndia kneeled down to face the dragon.

"Just like father, I want him to grow up and become a strong dragon, I want to name him with my father's name. That's why, this kid's name will be Gaelion."

"Gau!"

"Won't that be weird if we bring your father back?"

"When that happens, we'll just call him kid Gaelion."

"Well, your choice. Now join my party so that we can teleport back and avoid unnecessary human interaction."

"A-alright."

"Raphtalia, grab a few dragon eggs. I'll be damned if this town of greedy morons gets a single good thing out of this."

"Yes."

As soon as they were ready, Lyn raised his shield once more.

"[Portal Shield]."

"Kua?"

"Gau?"

"Ew! More dragons! Get away from my carriage!" Firo yelled.

Kayda jumped up from the carriage and on top of Gaelion in her pocket form.

"Kua kua? Kua!"

"Gau gau, gau Gau gau Gau! Gau gua."

"You also have a dragon!" Wyndia exclaimed, picking up Kayda.

"Kua!?"

"Gau, gau."

"Aw, our dragons are getting along. That's nice."

"Boooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo~" Firo whined, laying down onto her carriage, next to a very exhausted Rino.

"Are you alright Rino?" Raphtalia asked, putting the dragon eggs inside the carriage. Instead of answering, Rino let out a quiet whimper.

"I knew dragons and Filolials hate each other, but I didn't know it was that bad."

Seems like leaving her alone with a dragon and a filolial was a bad idea. But at least the carriage is still in one piece.

Lyn pulled out a vial of energy medicine and handed it to Rino.

"Lyn-sama, I think there is a problem."

"What's up?"

"Well, you know how you get the most exp if there are six or less members in a party?"

"Yeah? And there are only…. oh. I see."

Raphtalia, Rino, Firo, Kayda, Gaelion, Wyndia and I. There are already seven.

"Hm…"

Lyn put his shield into the carriage and opened his status menu.

C'mon shield, plz tell me you got this system here.

After a few seconds of scrolling Lyn found what he was looking for.

He created a second party and selected Wyndia, Gaelion, and Kayda to be in it.

Firo is probably the one who can level up the fastest, however her hatred of dragons is going to interfere. Now we just gotta talk about the slave seal.

"Wyndia, Gaelion, before we begin to grind levels let's talk about all the possible ways to help you get stronger."

"Like?" Wyndia asked while Gaelion walked a bit closer with Kayda on his head.

"Just join my party and you will get the rebirth bonus, which can be upgraded by resetting levels and will be shared among all the members of my party. This one increases the EXP gain and stat gain per level. However there is also another way to boost your stats, and that is by becoming my slave."

"What?!"

"GAU!"

Gaelion yelled and got in between Lyn and Wyndia again.

"Calm down, let me explain," Lyn said, closing his status menu. "The rebirth bonus is currently at about 2. This means that you will be twice as strong as a normal adventurer. Now for normal people, this is kinda it. Now the slave bonus doesn't give you any extra EXP, however it increases the amount of stats you get even further. Because of this Rino and Raphtalia are about 3 times as strong as a normal adventurer. I'm not saying you 'have to' become my slave, I'm saying it would make you stronger. You can just be a normal companion if you want, but you will fall behind pretty quickly."

"What about Gaelion?"

"One, he gets the rebirth bonus, two, he gets the monster bonus, and three, he also gets the dragon tamer bonus. This will make him about 4 times stronger than a normal dragon. However with the slave seal, like Kayda, he will be roughly 6 times as strong."

"Gau?"

"Kua!"

Kayda jumped off of Gaelions head and transformed into her three meter long dragon form.

"She's two days old and growing."

"Kua!"

"Gua… gua!"

"He says he'll do it. And so will I!"

"Alright, come closer."

Lyn pulled out a brush and some ink from his shield and drew slave seals on. Gaelion held Wyndias hand as the seal was applied to her. Kayda shrunk back into her small form on top of Gaelions head.

Lyn threw the ink back into his shield and opened Gaelions and Wyndias statuses.

"Well with that out of the way, let's talk about your levels. I think we should reset them."

"Reset?"

"You didn't reset my stats when we joined," Rino said, getting up from the carriage.

"Well your level wasn't that high there to begin with, so I was able to drain it. However both Wyndia and Dra.. Gaelion have higher levels than you. Plus there are two of them. And them resetting will benefit us all."

"How so?"

"Well the Rebirth bonus we all get gets stronger the more levels are sacrificed. It doesn't matter who does it because it all goes into the same place. Ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be."

"Gau!"

Lyn raised his shield and selected the action.

R.B. 1.2-1.56

R.B. 1.56-1.91

"Nice. Kayda, help them level up and bring them back before it gets dark."

"Kua!" Kayda turned back into her teenage form and jumped off of Gaelion's head. The two of them followed her to the forest. Lyn looked over to the remaining teammates. Rino and Raphtalia pulled out their swords and got ready to spar, while Firo was laying down in her carriage.

That girl knows World Magic. That'll be helpful later on.

Lyn equipped his healer's outfit and started to walk back to the village corpse.

"Where are you going Lyn-sama?"

"I'm going to try to warn the people about the dangers of keeping a dragon corpse outside for too long. If I don't do something, a plague will start and people will blame the Sword Hero for leaving the corpse."

"Why would they blame the Sword Hero?"

"Why wouldn't they? People like to shift the blame. I'm almost 100% sure they told him to leave the corpse."

"What if they won't listen?"

"If these people don't listen, we have three options. 1, I go in as the shield hero and absorb the whole dragon, salvaging the sword hero's reputation, but butchering my own. 2, we do nothing and leave, butchering the Swords Hero's reputation. 3, we drive to nearby villages and warn them of the danger of letting these people come to their village to make sure they don't let these people flee and spread the plague, then we wait for the plague to take effect, and then I come in and heal them for money and get rid of the dragon corpse by absorbing it into my shield, ruining the Ren's reputation, but we get paid."

"Well you don't get anything from the second option," Raphatlia said.

"Material wise, the third option is the best one," Rino added.

"Agreed," Raphtalia

"Huh."

Lyn raised an eyebrow while looking at Raphtalia.

"Why are you looking at me like that? Are you thinking something weird?"

"I didn't expect you to agree with my plan of exploiting people's stupidity for profit."

She looked away and pulled out her sword.

"Those people deserve it," she replied coldly.

"Fair enough. Well, I'll get going. Have fun practicing."

When he arrived at the corpse once more, after paying the toll to a confused man at the booth, Lyn pulled out the [Voice Gengar Shield] and got on top of the corpse.

"Testing, testing. Can everyone hear me? I'm going to make this quick. If this corpse continues to rot, it will cause a plague and many people will die!"

The people around him looked at Lyn for a moment before speaking up.

"Who do you think you are? If we get rid of the dragon, the adventurers won't come!"

"Don't tell us to get rid of the materials just so you could take them all for yourself! We had enough when the Spear Hero and the knights from the capital showed up!"

"The corpse belongs to us! Don't tell us what to do with it!"

"Y̴o̵u̵ ̴s̷h̸o̶u̸l̴d̴n̵'̴t̴ ̵e̷v̵e̸n̴ ̷b̵e̶ ̴h̷e̴r̴e̶!̴ ̵G̶e̵t̷ ̶o̵u̷t̸ ̸b̴e̴f̷o̶r̸e̵ ̵w̷e̶ ̵m̵a̸k̷e̷ ̶y̵o̸u̵!̶"

"̴͍̀Ẅ̷̥́h̷̞̉y̷̲͝ ̶̦̄ä̴̖r̷̞̓ë̷͍́ ̷̛͍y̴̬̔ö̸̗́ú̴ͅ ̴̮̅a̴̬͋c̸̨̔t̶̩̔i̷̻̍n̶̊͜g̵̥͝ ̵͖͐ş̴͝o̷̍ͅ ̸̟͌h̸̰͌i̷̧͂g̴̳̉h̴̻́ ̷̮͆ả̷͔ṉ̴̂d̴̞́ ̸̣͝m̵̼͆i̷͐͜g̷̫̿h̴̖̒t̸̼͊y̶̜̽!̷̲͛ ̶͇͆Y̶͖͝ö̸̘́u̴̙̐'̴̺͊r̵͕̿ë̸̩́ ̷̧͋n̷̳͛o̵̟̐ẗ̶̨́ḩ̶̆ḭ̷̛n̷͎͗g̸͍͆!̵͓̾"̸̭͛

"̶̦̈Ģ̴̧̥̫̪̬̣̃́͊ḙ̷̢̱͇̀̂̌̕t̶̻͙̙̅̒ ̴̗̀͊͂̋͌ọ̴̗͈̞͖͚̈́͌̿̐͜͝u̶͓͑̇̏͆̓̒̈́t̷̬̩̱̹͋̍̑̏́!̴̦͋ ̷̘̙͇̯̈́̈́̓͘͝͝Ẁ̶̼̮̲̦̈́͘ͅe̷͓̪͐͒̈́̕ ̷̡̤̬̮͍͖̅͛͆͑̆͜͠d̴̬͉̙̪̘̲͇͊͂ỏ̴̜͓̗͕̯̟͇̀ṋ̵͕̍͋'̸̛͕̯̹͍̬́͌͘t̶̰̖̬͇̜̏͋͒̄̀̅ ̶̥͚͒̾ͅw̵̯̐̿̏̐̒̕a̴͍͔͎̙͊͋̓̋̓̏͂n̸̡̬̺̗̹̞̐͋̇͜t̷̢̖̺̺̎͂̊̈́ ̸̢̞̪͖͂̋̎̄͗y̵͓̩̯̯̟͕̓̏o̴̧̪͇̻̊̋͠͝û̷͙̳͚̩͒̍̈́̉́͜ ̷̣̯̮̥̇̆̎̂h̶̨͎̝̣͚̪̭̋è̷̛̦r̵̨̛̙̪̩̼͜e̷̗̺̭̤̽̀̈̕"̶͚̪̭̻̱̽

The protests grew louder and louder, with everyone in the village adding their own two cents. Lyn sighed.

This is what I'm summoned to save? Why do I keep being summoned to places that are full of suicidal morons?

The megaphone in his hand let off a few sparks and the gem got slightly darker. Lyn stuck it to his back and opened his mouth.

"[Omega Speed], [All Speed]," were the last thing everyone heard before the man disappeared.

He didn't go far however, just behind the nearest tree on the way to the dragon cave. He had other things he had to take care of.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Lyn transformed his shield into his strongest shield. The [Chimera Dragon Shield] had the highest stats and currently the only counter which could do a bit of damage.

"Come out, I know you're there," he said, closing his eyes. No answer followed. Instead a rustling in the tree above him was heard and a cloaked figure dropped down behind him with a dagger in hand. Lyn turned around and grabbed them by the neck. They tried to stab him with the dagger but it stopped as soon as it hit his skin.

"Why the hell do you people keep stalking us? We're doing our f*cking job saving your sh*tty world, so why can't you just let us be?!" Lyn yelled, slamming the person's head into the ground. However due to his low attack stat, it had no effect.

"I wouldn't tell you anything, you demon," they replied.

As the person struggled, Lyn reached into their shirt and pulled out the symbol of the three heroes church.

So they're from the three heroes cult.

"Go back to hell!"

The person spit in his face and tried to stab him in the eye. Lyn swatted away the dagger and raised the person to his eye level.

"Damn, the king is so salty I beat up his prized spear hero, that he sent me my very own assasin. How cute. Next time send an army," Lyn said, turning to a nearby bush.

"Now let me show you what happens to those that threaten the safety of this world by threatening the safety of its pillars. [Shield Prison]."

A ball of shields surrounded Lyn and the assassin.

"W-what are you doing?" they asked.

"What I must. [Inventory Shield] water."

The shields began to glow as water poured in.

"You idiot! You'll drown too!"

"No, I won't," Lyn replied plainly.

As the prison filled up, the assassin continued to struggle. However it didn't take long till they started to run out of breath. Pretty soon the stabbing turned into desperate thrashing, trying to do everything, anything to break out of the hold of their captor. But Lyn just continued to stare, his body still as a rock, his hand unmoving. The assassin trashed one last time as their mouth opened and the air escaped their lungs. As life left their eyes, Lyn finally let them go, watching as the lifeless body fell to his feet. He then turned the bottom shield into an inventory shield once again and watched as it drained the water and absorbed the body with it.

Soul Absorbed.

[Requirements for the Human Meat Shield Have Been Met]

[Requirements for the Human Bone Shield Have Been Met]

[Requirements for the Human Skin Shield Have Been Met]

R.B. 1.91-2.53

Lyn changed his shield prison to the furnace prison and dried his clothes before he let his skill dissapear. He waited for a few more seconds until he felt the second assasin leave.